Echoed Silences
by Sial Filoscuro
Summary: Post Series - In a dark room miracles can happen and good-byes can be said.


**Disclaimer & Author Notes:** I will first state that obviously, and much to my eternal heartache, I don't own Fullmetal Alchemist or any of its delightful characters. That pleasure would be all Arakawa Sensei's! 

Second, let's explain a couple of things. In this story, Edward is 17 and Alphonse 16 years old and it takes place after a possible conclusion to the anime/manga series so do not expect sins around. However, that there are not sinful ones does not mean there is no conflict, especially amongst the military ranks.

"Echoed Silences" can perfectly work as an oneshot, since it's a pretty conclusive story, but also could work as the prologue to a longer series, because, in the beginning, was planned as such. Free time and inspiration will dictate if "Echoed Silences" is continued or not.

Finally, I would like to profusely thank my wonderful betas, Cocacat15 and Sonoda Aki, without whom I wouldn't have been ever able to put this thing into decent English.

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**Echoed Silences**

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The air in the barely illuminated room was thick with the remains of the energy the recent transmutation had left behind. The sensation of pressure against his skin made him feel as if phantom fingers ran all over his body, drawing a tingling path. And yet his stoic expression never wavered – never gave away the slightest sign of the discomfort he was currently experiencing.

Lieutenant General Mustang stood stiffly near the chamber's big metal doors, the weak light of the oil lamps hanging on the walls throwing an orange-ish hue over the dark material of his uniform. As always, he was the picture of perfect control, midnight blue eyes burning behind a mask of analytical detachment as he took in the scene unfolding before him, barely some meters away.

Edward Elric had done it.

The temperamental, bratty, stubborn and brilliant young man had reached the goal many others had thought impossible for the longest time.

There, in the middle of a perfectly drawn transmutation circle, the Fullmetal Alchemist was resting shakily on his only knee, hugging tightly to his slender frame the now very alive and very warm body of his younger brother with two flesh-and-bone arms.

So many years being a privileged witness to the struggles both boys had gone through, watching them face a cruel life, too cruel for someone so young, and now their travel had finally reached an end.

Slowly, not wanting to lose sight of the scene he had waited years to behold, Mustang let his steely gaze drift towards the far end of the room, where, outside the alchemic array, the metallic reminders of mistakes of the past lay. The muscles of his jaw tensed when his mind remembered the terrible prices the Elric brothers had been forced to pay for their sins. Sins perhaps committed out of love and good intentions, but that had left an undeletable stain on the boys' innocence nonetheless.

And, he reasoned as he took his eyes back to the embracing brothers, the prices they would still have to pay were too high and too unfair. He was sure that despite the joy his younger brother's restoration had brought to Fullmetal, the fact that Alphonse's body had returned as the one of the child he was when the failed transmutation had happened would forever cast a shadow over the blond alchemist's heart.

He didn't need to be an expert on judging characters either to know how always polite and well mannered Alphonse's gaze would become opaque with sorrow whenever he would look at his brother's still missing leg.

An unthinkable success, they had achieved today. But it hadn't come free.

It never did.

Pure, merciless equivalent trade, Mustang's mind whispered with the ever present tinge of bitterness that recurring lesson had engraved in him time after time.

At his sides, his hands closed into tight fists, only the abrasive material of the gloves he wore preventing his nails from biting into the flesh of his palms. He had to almost physically restrain himself from closing the distance separating him from the two boys.

The little part of him hidden away behind a thousand locks that wanted nothing but join them in their joy, to savour the unthinkable success as if it was his own, demanded to be unleashed and granted free reign. But years of severely exerted self-control were bound to always claim victory over his emotions and so Mustang crisply turned around to look at where his faithful shadow patiently stood. He raised a gloved hand to make a curt signal to Captain Hawkeye and, without saying a word, the woman opened the chamber's heavy doors, stepping aside to wait for her superior to cross the threshold and leave the room.

He had nothing more to do there, so the best thing he could do was to finally leave the two boys alone.

Mustang knew that without his obsession to find a way to restore his brother's body, forcing him to rely on the resources the military could provide, Fullmetal would probably prefer losing his arm again than remain within the ranks of the National Alchemists.   
  
He had always understood that Edward Elric's relationship with the military had been seen, from the very beginning, as means to an end by the blond alchemist and so the boy had played the game. Fullmetal had accepted being used as a tool by his superiors, especially by Mustang himself, as long as it had gained him the advantages he required.

But now, finally, those advantages were no longer needed. Fullmetal had never been an obedient dog that enjoyed his leash.  
  
So he realized that, most likely, that was the last time he would be seeing the Elric brothers. He somewhat wished it was.

Perhaps some other time Mustang would have chosen to deny the sharp pang of sadness that thought sent through his heavily guarded heart but, in that precise instant, in that dark chamber of miracles, the Lieutenant General granted himself a moment of honesty.

He was going to miss them very much.

And he also was going to experience a deep feeling of relief.

Away from the intricate web of schemes and unspeakable secrets that surrounded the military, the chances the brothers would get themselves in positions where they could get seriously hurt would considerably decrease and so would his worries.

Seeing the Elrics hurt was a thing that, without failing, had always managed to make Mustang discard his cool, calm façade and slip in his self-control. And in such difficult times those traits of his personality were not something he could afford to lose if he wanted to remain alive and achieve his goals.

No, it was definitely better this way. Maybe at long last, the boys would be able to live a calm, peaceful life back at their little hometown. If someone deserved that kind of reward, it certainly was them.

One last time, the stoic Lieutenant General trailed dark eyes back to where Edward and Alphonse Elric still clung fervently to each other, perhaps as a manner of definitive good bye or perhaps to tuck away in his mind a last image, a happy one, of the boys who had meant so much in his solitary life. Unexpectedly, he found himself facing twin golden pools of ice.

Over his little brother's shoulder, Edward Elric had turned his head so that he was now facing the man by the door, the lines of his young face schooled in the blankest look Mustang had ever received from the boy.

For a few never-ending moments, as he stared into that emotionless, hard gaze that so nearly matched his own, Roy Mustang wished the chaotic times they were living in could allow him the luxury to wholly experience regret. Had he been granted such a gift, he would have mourned the loss of the childlike innocence he had forced upon the boy along the years Fullmetal had been under his command. The slow, progressive and utterly unavoidable erosion he had started on Edward Elric the day he had suggested him to join the National Alchemists.

But he knew he had not the right to lift that weight from his soul yet, perhaps never would have it, and the current days were too dangerous to brood about the breaking of emotional barriers so, after a curt nod of acknowledgement directed at the blond alchemist, he turned around and passing by the awaiting Hawkeye, he walked out of the room, wishing with all his soul that he was also stepping out of the Elrics' path for good.

**# e n d**

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End file.
